75 



far as can be ascertained, that anything was published concerning 

 injury by the species to strawberry or other edible crops. In the 

 year 1889 there was published in Insect Life (Vol. I, pp. 220, 221) a 

 note from correspondence on injuries b} 7 the beetle to the tender leaves 

 of grape at Tempe, Ariz., in April, 1886. 



This was followed the next year b} T several publications concerning 

 this flea-beetle, which will be briefly mentioned : 



A line note on the occurrence of the species on Kalmia, at Peekskill, 

 N. Y., early in May, by Mr. John D. Sherman, jr. (Proc. Ent. Soc. 

 Wash., Vol.1, p. 162)/ 



A second letter from the correspondence of the Division (Insect 

 Life, Vol. II, pp. 369, 370), a complaint of injury by Mr. W. E. 

 Hudson, Orlando, Fla., March 27, 1890. The beetles appeared on this 

 correspondent's strawberries in thousands, and all the berry fields in 

 the neighborhood were infested. They were also noticed on weeds of 

 different species and on peach trees. The} r fed on the leaves from the 

 upper side, eating off all the green part and leaving only the 

 skeleton. 



A short note by Dr. James C. Neal, stating merely that this flea- 

 beetle had been the source of much trouble to strawberry growers in 

 various sections of the State of Florida (Bui. 9, Fla. Agr. Exp. 

 Stat., p. 11). 



A note by Prof. Lawrence Bruner (Kept, of the Entomologist, Nebr. 

 State Horti. Soc. for 1890, p. 23) containing, however, no original 

 observations. 



The following year, 1891, Prof. F. M. Webster (Bui. 33, Purdue 

 Univ. Agr. Expt. Sta. Ind., p. 11) wrote of injuries by this insect at 

 Columbus, Ind. What is practically a reprint of the last-mentioned 

 note appeared the following year (Trans. Ind. Horti. Soc. for 1890 

 [1891], p. 25). This was followed by an article by Mr. Webster on 

 the occurrence of this species at New Albany, in southern Indiana, 

 reciting injury to strawberries, and including mention of damage occur 

 ring as far north as Indianapolis. July and August were the months 

 noted as the ones in which the beetles were most destructive, they 

 seeming to disappear from the field about the 1st of September. A 

 note by Mr. E. A. Schwarz (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol, II, p. 183) 

 appeared next, giving a review of observed food plants of the beetle. 

 He remarked, among other things, that the imago appears to be more 

 polyphagous than any other species of its genus, and that (Erwthera 

 biennis seemed to be the only true food plant ascertained for the larva 

 up to that time. Brief mention was made in Volume V of Insect Life 

 (p. 17) of injury that has previously been mentioned, adding, however, 

 two new localities for the species — Lake City, Fla., and Waco, Tex. 

 Omitting mere mention of the occurrence of this species on Kalmia by 

 Dr. J. Hamilton, we come to an article published by Mr. A. L. Quaint- 



